Does a man’s hardship matter more than a woman’s?

Abstract

COVID-19 led to increased economic distress, which is usually associated with an increased justification of domestic violence. Through causal methods of survey experiments, the reasons for justification of domestic violence are evaluated. The hypotheses are tested using a survey experiment set in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with 500 participants (men and women) around the time of the first wave of the pandemic. The results show that hardships from the COVID-19-related lockdown were associated with increased support for domestic violence across genders. We also find that women justified domestic violence more than men.